By Love Possessed (1961)

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• Based on: By Love Possessed

By Love Possessed is a 1961 American drama film distributed by United Artists. The movie was directed by John Sturges, and written by Charles Schnee, based on the novel by James Gould Cozzens.

Production

Film rights to the novel were purchased by United Artists who originally planned to produce it with Seven Arts. When Seven Arts and United Artists terminated their agreement, United Artists took possession of the material and approached Walter Mirisch to produce. (There were two other properties as well, West Side Story and Two for the Seesaw.) Mirsch hired Charle Schnee to write the script which was offered to John Sturges who agreed to direct.

Lana Turner agreed to star and the male lead was given to Efrem Zimbalist Jr. Mirsch said "We hoped that casting him with Lana in our picture would make him a motion-picture star." Warren Beatty turned down the role played by George Hamilton. Charlton Heston also turned down a lead role.

According to Mirsch, Lana Turner constantly demanded script changes. Isobel Lennart did some work on the script. The changes upset Schnee who used a pseudonym, "John Denis".

Mirsch admitted Sturges "was certainly more at home with male-oriented, action subjects than soap opera... but I was guilty of ignoring my own misgivings and of wanting to keep him involved in one of our projects rather than letting him accept an assignment elsewhere while we were doing the script preparation on The Great Escape."

John Sturges later recalled he "liked the original script" that Schnee wrote but "in a series of things which came about it went aground. Five different sets of minds. What Miss Lana Turner thought. What Walter Mirisch thought. What United Artists thought. What Charlie Schnee thought... By the time we were ready to go I would never have made the picture if I had my choice."

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